Aware Super now has a 22% stake in the build-to-rent developer
Australian pension firm Aware Super has bought a 22% stake in build-to-rent developer Get Living.
The superannuation fund has purchased the stake from investment firm Qatari Diar and joins other investors in Get Living, which each control a 39% share.
Get Living, which has a portfolio of about £3bn and 4,000 homes, and named a new chief operating officer at the end of last year, said it marked a “significant vote of confidence” in its business. The company also has 6,500 homes in the secured development pipeline.
Aware Super already invests in built-to-rent and affordable housing in Australia. Its senior portfolio manager – property Alek Misev said with Get Living it could “build a solid foundation to ensure the UK’s BTR housing market meets the growing demand”.
He added: “Most importantly, this investment will also offer our 1.1 million members strong, risk-adjusted returns and diversification benefits in a key-strategic region for Aware Super, within a sector that has shown strong resilience during economic downturns, and attractive long-term macroeconomic and demographic fundamentals.”
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Qatari Diar was a founding investor in Get Living when it launched in 2013 to manage 1,500 homes in the former Olympic Village in Stratford.
Dutch pension investment company APG and DOOR, a residential investment vehicle comprising investment from Delancey client funds, Oxford Properties, Alecta, Allianz and LPPI, are the other investors. Rick De Blaby, chief executive of Get Living, said: “In Aware Super, we are extremely privileged to have a long-term, purpose-driven and mature investor, and I look forward to working closely with their team, as they join our other valued investors in APG and DOOR.”
The built-to-rent developer’s homes are spread across three neighbourhoods in East Village and Elephant Central in London, and New Maker Yards in Manchester. Its newest large neighbourhood of 650 homes launches in Lewisham towards the end of this year.
It is currently building new neighbourhoods in Birmingham, Maidenhead and Leatherhead as well as working on the mixed-use regeneration of Elephant and Castle Town Centre, which received a £365m development loan from Starwood Capital early in 2022.
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